The Ghanaian Gold Rush Persists. Will we find anything of value?

Beyond the streets of the capital — where the tarred roads crumble to sandy paths, and the vegetation thickens — lies the true wealth of our nation. Within the interior of Ghana, the grounds have held great promise since before Ghana’s inception into West Africa in 1957. From the rich soil on the cocoa plantations in the eastern region to the vast rice beds in the Volta and to the oil reserves in the Gulf and the gold beneath it all, the nation has never lacked the ingredients of success needed to prosper.

Yet worldly evolution and our governments deafness to change has haunted the country, not once but twice. Colloquially dubbed as ‘galamsey’, small scale mining operations have existed in Ghana for decades.

The current minerals and mining law defines small scale mining as mining by a method not involving substantial expenditure by an individual or group of persons not exceeding nine or a co-operative society made of ten or more persons with simple implements. The activity should be artisanal in nature and also said to be solely reserved for Ghanaians.

However, foreign controlled small scale mining operations— which are relatively industrious in scale and thus, more destructive — have sporadically appeared and persisted throughout the country despite efforts to stop the harmful activity.

In 2013, a New York Times article titled, Chasing a Golden Dream, Chinese Miners Are on the Run in Ghana, reported that Ghanaian government was preparing to deport Chinese migrants because of their involvement in illegal small scale mining operations activities deep in the interior of the country. By law, only citizens are allowed to participate in small scale gold mining activities. The piece mainly focused how the popular resentment towards the Chinese’s’ illegal activities had spurred to police to use violent means to apprehend those involved. As a result, of the strong response by the Ghanaian populace, the police and the military police, Michael Amoako reported that, “More than 200 others have given themselves up voluntarily, and the pressure continues, with an anti-illegal mining task force “still in operation.”

Four years later, CitiFM Online reported that water treatment plants have been shut down in Western Region, Greater Accra, Ashanti Region, Northern and Central Region due to high levels of water pollution. The source — CitiFM reported — can be attributed to the high levels of illegal gold mining. Recent reports from several Ghanaian publications also suggest that the Chinese migrants have been arrested in connection with these illegal small scale operations.

Over the past couple of weeks, Ghanaians have resorted to a variety of responses including, but not limited to: a journalist-led media campaign against galamsey; politicians blaming the government for the occurrence of this event; and Ghanaians and the government alike blaming the Chinese government for the illegal actions perpetuated by their citizens.

Despite this strong response yet again, it appears that the nation has not learnt the lesson of migrants blatantly looting from us just three years ago. The Chinese migrants, in cooperation with Indian partners have persisted and continue to litter the rural Ghanaian landscape with large, dangerous holes.

But will our actions, spurred by anger and resentment be enough?

The Ghanaian economy is subject to the ebb and flow of the prices for raw materials and crops because the country does not have a diversified economy that produces semi-finished or completed products. Furthermore, we rely on a variety of imported materials to feed the nation because the Ghanaian economy does not have the industrial capability to make value added products from our raw materials or products needed by our citizens. Thus, when the prices of one of most valuable crops fall and people are affected as a result, they do what any person would do to survive, move to another option.

Take cocoa as one example. Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, behind neighboring Ivory Coast. The raw material accounted for roughly 8% of the nation’s GDP and 30% of the country’s export earnings in 2015. Consequently, a substantial amount of the jobs in the economy — cocoa farmers, truck drivers etc. — depend on the viability of the worldly trade for their livelihoods. However, as prices have dropped substantially reflecting the general downturn in world commodity prices, the cocoa industry and its domestic beneficiaries have taken a massive hit.

Take Paul Mensah, a current operator at a galamsey operation in Ghana. He used to work on a cocoa plantation; however due to falling prices, he couldn’t make ends meet with the amount of time and energy he expended daily. Small scale mining, however was a more promising alternative because the activity promised more returns on a day’s hard work and he could provide not only for his family, but his town too.

Paul Mensah is not the only Ghanaian who has resorted to alternative means of survival. There is significant evidence showing that a lot of these galamsey operations are not only staffed with Ghanaians but can be found on cocoa farms. Unfortunately, the amount of anger and resentment has clouded the perceptive capabilities of the authorities and the government to understand the root of this issue.

Dangerous and unmonitored galamsey operations will persist if the government does not provide the support and other alternatives for Ghanaians to make a living. This hits the heart of the problem, and circles back strongly to the issue of social development. Industrial scale galamsey operations will continue to persist, and will be to some extent justifiable by the masses who feel excluded and vulnerable, until sustainable progress is made on this front. Until those at the bottom of the pyramid are taken better care of and empowered. In a twisted way, galamsey acts as a way in which those in the rural areas work to empower themselves by taking matters into their own hands and fighting for their survival — albeit to the depletion of some our most precious resources (ie. gold, cocoa, clean water, etc). To understand how to effectively tackle the problem, we must first understand why it is really happening. This goes beyond statements by the government simply calling for Chinese and Indian nationals to evacuate the lands.

Can we make the best out of a bad situation?

Admittedly, some relevant characters in Ghana have made strides towards diversifying our economy to reduce our reliance on imports and world prices. For example, in November 2016, Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum opened the Edwumawura rice milling factories at Worawora in the Volta Region and Assin Breku in the Central Region. The mill will provide a substantial amount of jobs and plug the $1.2 million deficit for imported rice.

Beyond cocoa and rice, there are other ways the private sector and the government can make strides to diversify the Ghanaian economy and reduce our reliance on the world. The nation has a textile industry that can be made more viable with more investment and innovation to improve efficiency and price competitiveness. As it stands now, over half of the textiles our churches use to commemorate certain occasions, our mothers wear for funerals and weddings, our vibrant workers wear to work on Friday are produced by foreign companies.

Too long have we been steeped in the culture of extracting raw materials at the cost of our well-being only to receive low returns for our hard work. We must tax government to implement the ‘one district, one factory’ plan as a way to building a diversified and industrialized economy.

Ghana should not be marked by the events where migrants from other countries loot from us under the supposed watchful eye of the law! We must stand tall as a nation, working towards a bigger and brighter future for all; capitalize on the national sentiment and making use of our potential to soar to new heights.

The gold rush continues.